Chapter 21: Special Perk
The moonlight was bright, but it was still night.
The ostrich dinosaur had large eyeballs, and its vision was developed, specialized in seeing and chasing prey with its eyes.
Jin-tae gripped the stick he was using effectively and approached it as closely as possible.
“Croo-ruk.”
The creature seemed to sense something, lifting its head and looking around before its eyes met Jin-tae’s.
“Kwieeek!”
“Stop right there!”
As the creature ran away, Jin-tae quickly started running too.
Come here!
Papatapat!
This wasn't the old Jin-tae.
With an incredible sprint, the distance between him and the creature gradually closed. The stat stones he'd been gobbling up clearly weren't wasted – his speed was insane.
After a minute of that...
‘Got it!’
This was close enough.
He swung the stick in his hand horizontally with all his might.
Whoosh!
The stick was made of short and long sticks connected by a string, it looked like some kind of long nunchuck.
Tatak!
“Kkui!”
Gripping the longer stick, he aimed low, sweeping it at the creature's legs. The smaller stick connected, sending the thing sprawling.
Papatapat!
Jin-tae closed in, taking advantage of its slower speed, and landed a solid kick.
Thwack!
“Kkui!”
It was about the size of a big dog, but way lighter than a goblin – it went flying.
Jin-tae rushed over to the dazed creature, whipped out his knife, and jammed it under its chin.
Kujik!
Huge improvement from the first time he'd fought a goblin.
The last few days had been more intense than Jin-tae's entire life combined.
Had there ever been a time when he had contemplated life so deeply? He was pretty sure he hadn't stressed this much even during his angsty middle school phase.
“Hoo, if only I had magic power.”
Whether it was bad luck or not, he hadn't looted a magic power orb even once yet. Perhaps the drop rate for magic power orbs was extremely low, and Cheol-du was just lucky to get one early on.
If he had magic power, Jin-tae's only skill, ‘Crafting,’ would allow him to imbue mana when creating items.
Hell, even this janky rope-flail thing he was using now would've been a masterpiece.
“No matter how I look at it, hunting isn't really my thing.”
Since getting used to Nova, Jin-tae had been doing some serious soul-searching – even more than in middle school – and realized he'd never be like Cheol-du, no matter how hard he tried.
Sure, he'd adapt and hunt, but he'd never be as good as Cheol-du.
Besides, he was way more interested in how civilization would develop in this Nova place.
If making crappy fishing rods and messing around with wood and stone was this fun, how awesome would it be to work with iron and stuff later on?
If this were an RPG, Cheol-du would totally be a fighter, and he'd be a craftsman, right?
He was pretty sure his calling was to be a craftsman.
'I'm gonna be a master craftsman.'
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There were tons of ways to go about being a craftsman, but like most people, he had zero actual plans.
He just liked the idea, and that was enough for now.
But his grand plans didn't stop him from hunting down more ostrich dinosaurs.
Footsteps echoed softly.
Craftsman or not, he still needed basic fighting and hunting skills to survive in Nova.
It'd be lame to have to call for his buddy every time something went down, right?
While Cheol-du headed northwest, Jin-tae hunted in the area, gradually heading northeast.
He hadn't meant to come this way, but he'd just followed the prey.
Those ostrich dinosaurs always seemed to bolt in this direction.
“Huh? What’s that?”
Jin-tae squinted at a silhouette on a distant hill.
‘What is that?’
It was too far, and with only the moonlight, it was hard to make out, but he could see five pillars.
They looked like giant ribs, tapering to a point at the top.
'Wait, are those actual ribs?'
Bones meant it was an animal, not a monster. Were there really creatures that big in Nova?
Big enough to see from this far away?
He knew this wasn't Earth, but it was really hitting him now.
'Time to head back.'
Jin-tae retraced his steps, hunting ostrich dinosaurs as he returned.
There were a bunch of ostrich dinosaurs near the weird structure, but too many to just rush in and grab the coins.
He could get swarmed; drawing aggro from a whole mob would be bad news.
It'd take longer, but picking them off one by one in the open field was Jin-tae's best bet right now.
Finally, he made it back to the stone tower, but someone was already there.
“Wh-Who's there?”
“It’s me.”
“…Ah, Cheol-du.”
Jin-tae, who'd approached cautiously, relaxed when he heard Cheol-du's voice and walked over.
“Did you gather a lot?”
“Hehehe, your bro busted his ass out there. 82 coins.”
“Oh.”
Jin-tae casually asked Cheol-du, who was poking at the firewood.
“What about you?”
“I got all of them, and then some.”
“Huh?”
“About 1700.”
“Huh?”
Jin-tae's jaw dropped.
“You caught 1700 of those things?”
“Nah, there are orcs and cows over there. They drop way more coins.”
“Huh.”
Jin-tae realized once again.
There was no way he'd ever catch up to Cheol-du, not in a million years. Forget catching up, just trying to keep up was killing him.
At this rate, he'd be useless in a fight soon.
He felt a pang of self-doubt, but it passed quickly.
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Realizing this wasn't his path actually gave him a boost.
“How many are you going to burn?”
“Me? Hmm.”
Jin-tae looked at the stone tower.
The more he put into activating the sanctuary, the bigger the reward, it seemed…
“All of them.”
“Alright, you go first.”
“Okay.”
Jin-tae placed his right hand on the sanctuary.
The number 82 appeared on the back of his hand, then soon turned into light and was absorbed into the stone tower.
Cheol-du did the same, absorbing his coins. The 2000 coins needed were quickly reached.
<Sanctuary activation contribution confirmed.>
<Perk granted.>
<Inventory unlocked.>
Cheol-du felt a surge of energy as the light flowed into him. It lingered on his left hand before vanishing into the back of it.
“Hmm?”
It was like having memories downloaded into his brain, just like when he first became a Novice.
With the light, he instantly understood how the inventory worked.
<Highest contribution.>
<Bonus perk granted.>
<Inventory expanded by 4 slots.>
“Hmm.”
Cheol-du opened his inventory – five slots, all empty.
He could stash five things in there now.
“Wow, amazing!”
Jin-tae was freaking out beside him.
“Holy crap! I got an inventory! Two slots! What about you, Cheol-du?”
“Me too. I got five slots.”
“Whoa, so you get one slot for helping, and then extra slots based on how many coins you put in.”
Jin-tae was practically buzzing with excitement.
“Yeah, that's gotta be it, based on the coins. Holy shit, is this for real?”
“Calm down, Jin-tae.”
“Dude, this is insane! An inventory! It's like, actual subspace!”
Cheol-du just shook his head, grabbed a skewer of cooked rabbit, and started chowing down.
He tore into it.
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
Cheol-du devoured one rabbit in the blink of an eye and picked up the second one.
“Oh, wait a minute.”
“Unbelievable.”
He must have been starving after hunting all night.
Dude was really into this inventory thing.
Jin-tae finally stopped messing with his inventory, sat down next to Cheol-du, and grabbed some rabbit.
“Oh, there’s one left.”
“Don't mention it.”
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He started eating.
Jin-tae chewed on the meat and said in a voice still filled with excitement.
“It's not about how many things you have, it's actual slots. I dunno how big stuff can be, but if you can hold it, it goes in.”
The inventory was literally slots.
Putting in a bag takes up 1 slot.
If you put items separately inside the bag, each of them takes up 1 slot.
If you wanted to cheese it, you could make a huge bundle and stuff everything into one slot.
“But that's a waste. This is subspace, man! You should totally use, like, two or three slots for weapons.”
“Weapons?”
“Think about it – you're fighting, and BAM! Sword or spear out of nowhere.”
“Hmm.”
“Or a bow! You can stash it in your inventory and pull out another weapon right away, instead of chucking it.”
“Oh.”
Cheol-du found himself nodding along with Jin-tae's ideas.
His mind was racing with possibilities.
“This is awesome.”
“Took you long enough! Haha.”
Jin-tae finished his food and told him about the structure he'd seen earlier.
“It might be a sanctuary like this one.”
“Maybe.”
The two friends decided to head there next, hoping for another perk.
They couldn't see much at night, so they planned to head out early when the sun came up.
“Let's crash for a bit.”
“Yeah, we'll be up all night at this rate.”
They took turns sleeping by the campfire.
“Ugh, we need more people next time. Just the two of us ain't gonna cut it.”
“Yeah, agreed.”
They only managed a couple of hours of sleep each before the sun came up. They didn't even have a clock, so it was just a guess.
They were still groggy and wanted to sleep more.
“O-dol and the others are probably grinding away too.”
“We gotta bring them along next time we come to Nova.”
“Right, let's head over there first.”
“Yeah, and if it's another sanctuary, we might get another perk…”
Jin-tae put his hand on the stone pillar and jumped.
<Offer 1 coin for the Sanctuary's Blessing?>
“Dude, Cheol-du, get your hand over here.”
“Hmm?”
Cheol-du put his hand on it too and offered up a coin.
<Sanctuary's Blessing received.>
<Recovery rate doubled for 24 hours.>
“Oh, so we can get blessings here now that we activated it?”
“It seems so.”
They both got the blessing, then caught three rabbits to roast and eat.
“So, the first perks are super valuable, which means the veterans are gonna be all over this place soon, right?”
“Veterans?”
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“Shinseoul was opened up two years ago, right? That's like ten years in Nova time. There's gotta be veterans there. Imagine those guys chowing down on stat stones all that time. Plus skills and traits… They'd be practically superhuman, wouldn't they?”
“Ah.”
Cheol-du's mind was blown.
It hit him like a ton of bricks.
'This newbie barbarian had been way too cocky.'
He'd been looking down on humans because of the barbarian's OP stats.
I'm stronger than humans. It's like a tiger versus sheep.
What a dumbass.
“I was totally clueless.”
How many humans were out there in Nova, stronger than him?
“What's with the sudden drama? Okay, sure, let's be humble…”
“This is getting me hyped!”
“Huh?”
“Hehehe.”
Coming to Nova was the best decision ever.
This place is crawling with strong guys.
I'll catch up to them, one step at a time. And then I'll crush them.
“Let's go, Jin-tae. Time to power up.”
“Oh, okay.”
Gotta snag all those first perks before the veterans show up.
As it dawned and visibility increased, the unidentified structure quickly came into view as they moved northeast a little.
